THE RELEVANCE OF MARKET ANALYSIS IN UNIVERSITY SPIN OFF CREATION: A CASE STUDY

The third mission of universities has assumed a strategic role and primary importance in governance policies both in Europe and worldwide. Although the question has raised interest around topics such as technology transfer and university (academic) spin-offs, the scarcity of available financial resources and traditional university culture haven't reached the optimization of the potentialities related to this type of activities yet. The aim of this work is to investigate the phenomenon of USOs through an in-depth analysis of the related literature and offer a case study analysis. Analyzing the process of creation we want to underline how the analysis of potential customers is an essential element in the phase of creation of university spin-off. In literature the process of creation is limited only to promote a business plan implementation, but often this is just a descriptive document and not inclusive of the required customer analysis. This can cause the incorrect initial analysis of the USO and lead to failure of the initiative. The case study allows us to demonstrate how a correct analysis of potential customers can influence and be crucial to the proper strategy setting.